This blog site was started by the first cohort from East Africa to benefit from the Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships for Masters programmes at the Institute of Education, University of London. The over 20 members made a decision during their study to find a strategy for continued collaboration beyond that period. This blog site, along with other initiatives was borne out of this decision.

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

DfID ACCUSED FOR FAKE AID; nobody is ripe enough!!!

Over £1bn of UK foreign “aid” used to spread propagandaFor immediate release

The Department for International Development (DfID) claims to be “leading the UK government’s fight against world poverty”. However, by 2011 it will have spent over £1bn of taxpayers’ money on propaganda, according to “Fake Aid”, a new report from International Policy Network.

Recipients of this money include trade unions and other partisan political organisations in the UK. Examples include:

£1.2 million given to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) since 2003 for activities including: lobbying, hiring new staff and an “international buffet and wine” event to celebrate “International Women’s Day” in the UK. DfID also paid the TUC to hold lessons in how to apply for DfID funds.

£300,000 to the National Union of Teachers (NUT) to “enable them [teachers] to become global agents of change”.

The creation of fake NGOs such as “Connections for Development” (CfD), supposedly a forum for black and ethnic minorities to engage “on issues relating to international development.” DfID created and is the only donor to CfD, providing it with £600,000 in its first two years, yet an independent review questioned “the purpose of the organisation.”

£10 million spent flying poor Brits to poor countries to work for free.

IPN’s Julian Harris, one of the report’s authors, said “DfID often hand-picks the largest recipients, such as trade unions, behind closed doors. This smacks of cronyism.”

The report highlights the waste of DfID funds on political campaigning while a child dies every 30 seconds from malaria in poor countries.

“The money DfID is wasting in this year alone could in principle treat 230 million people suffering from malaria,” concluded Harris.